"Age is just a number, and jail is just a room" 😂 the first time I heard that statement in a movie, I burst out laughing. Although I already knew about the "Age is just a number" part for years, hearing the other part made the statement feel complete and balanced; it's like having light and darkness balancing each other. Anyway, age is just a number is quite a popular phrase and most time when I hear it being used, it's always about someone defending their choice of partner, be it someone much, much older, or a lot younger.
But sometimes, this phrase is also used in a very disturbing circumstance, like a man of over 30 years getting into a relationship with a 15-year-old girl, simply because she looks "ripe". I have come across such a sick mentality quite a number of times in my country and to people with such a mentality, a girl that has gone through puberty is ready for a relationship and her age doesn't matter, after all, it's just a number. The crazy part is that children in this generation grow a lot faster, that's why you will see a 15-year-old looking like they are 25 or something
Meanwhile, the official age of consent in Nigeria (and most of the world) is 18, but even at that most Nigerian parents won't just sit back and allow you to get into one at that age. It's funny how Nigeria parents always fight their female daughters trying to get into a relationship in their 20s but when they are approaching 30, the question "When are you bringing a man home" starts trending in the home 😅 but in essence, 18 is the official age of consent and even that age is still considered young to go into a relationship but that still doesn't stop a lot of people from starting much earlier than that, like some of you reading this right now 😉.
Personally, I believe anyone above the age of 18 is free to choose whoever they want to get into a relationship with, it's their life, not mine. That doesn't mean I'm not going to judge though, I mean, I can't even help it. I have come across stories of couples with a very large age gap between them and most of the time I always assume there is an ulterior motive on the part of the younger person, what else would I be thinking when I see a 25 years old man getting married to someone over 60 😅. Other Nigerians here must have come across something like that, and most of the time, the much older partner is white, and suddenly, some of us start thinking of one thing; green card.
Alright, I won't go into much detail about that, and as I said before, it's their life and they are free to make any choice they want. I guess the reason I am always judgemental especially when it's between a young man and an older woman is because in Nigeria, the groom is older than the bride during marriages, at least from my own experience, I haven't come across a lot of cases where the bride is older. And that is the case because a lot of ladies prefer older men, and no I don't mean their grandfather's mate but someone with maybe an age difference of 4 or 5 from them.
Meanwhile, for most guys, it's the opposite; they prefer someone younger, so I guess it is balanced that well. For me, I'm also with the majority who prefer younger ladies, it doesn't matter if I'm just a month older, but at least I should be older 😂 once I sense a lady is older, I just start calling them "ma" or "ma'am", you're my elder and I like to respect my elders, it's not easy. Anyway, that's just my preference and that probably means I don't believe in the "age is just a number" phrase which is true because it is disturbing to say that in certain cases, like the underage girl example I gave earlier.
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